Cashman & General Joe Talk About A-Rod

First, we’ll start with the guy that I like…

Via WFAN ala’ the Post, here’s what Joe Girardi has to say:

Joe Girardi got in line with the rest of the Yankees organization today and pledged his support to steroid-tainted Alex Rodriguez.

“I think we will rally around him. I think teammates have already started to rally around him,” Girardi said on WFAN this afternoon.

“I kind of look at it as a relationship you kind of have with your kids. Sometimes kids do things you wish they didn’t do, but you don’t stop loving them, you don’t stop caring for them, you don’t stop being their friend or their teammate. And that’s the thing.”

“I think all of us always thought of Alex not taking anything, and I was a little bit shocked, but I was happy with the way he’s approached this, dealt with it so far.

“I really felt in his heart he was truly sorry yesterday, because Alex is not a guy of a lot of emotions and you could see the tears in his eyes.”

Girardi said he did not take steroids as a player, and did not know of any teammate doing so while he was with the Yankees.

“I don’t ever think of players as necessarily taking money out of my pocket. What’s disappointing to me that in baseball people focus on the numbers,” Girardi said. “And the home run records, the single-season records, and I believe that our game has been tainted.

“This is going to be an era that people look at as great for certain parts of baseball, but not great for other parts, and that’s disappointing for me. You want to move on and get to the new era, but names keep coming out and you have to keep looking back.”

Girardi said he has been in contact with Rodriguez recently.

“I talked to him about the truth and how important it was,” Girardi said. “Once you get the truth out there … it’s a big weight off your shoulders. And you could move on and move forward and it’s the start of the healing process.

“That’s a good thing. There’s a lot of good that can come from things that are negative, and I think it’s important that he tries to turn this around.”

“I would probably be worried if he had never been through a controversy before,” Girardi said. “If he had never been booed in stadiums, if he was the one that everyone always pulled for, but Alex, everywhere he goes, there’s resentment or people that don’t like him for whatever reason.

“He’s been down that road and he’s been able to shut it out. He’ll be able to do it this time, too.”

And, now, via Jack Curry, some words from Brian Cashman:

Once the Yankees decided to negotiate with Alex Rodriguez after his memorable opt-out in 2007, they debated the merits of signing him to a 10-year contract and an unprecedented investment of $275 million. During those discussions, no Yankee executives broached the possibility that Rodriguez might have been a steroid user.

“It’s not something that came up,” General Manager Brian Cashman said.

Because Rodriguez had never failed a drug test in four seasons with the Yankees and had passed the stricter testing in the 2006 World Baseball Classic, Cashman said the team had no reason to suspect that Rodriguez had used steroids.

“It’s clearly a fair question, but how would you know that from 2001 to 2003 this was taking place?” Cashman said. “Basically, you can ask that about any player we’ve signed or acquired. We had already been in a testing period. You get past that.”

For the third time since 2005, the Yankees will open spring training with one of their players being dogged by questions about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Cashman said the Yankees have a responsibility to “be there for the tough times” with players, and he stressed that this was one of those times.

“Unfortunately, we’ve been in this situation with Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi,” Cashman said. “There’s going to be a lot of negatives that come with this. There’s also going to be positives in terms of having some light shed on things. The circumstances are what they are. We’ll deal with it.”

As much as Cashman hopes that Rodriguez is immune to the commotion and produces, he expected the steroid tag to cling to him.

“This will be a long process,” Cashman said. “It was a long way for Jason Giambi. I don’t know if it ever really went away. Maybe it wasn’t as loud. It was very loud and then it got softer, but there were always rumblings about it. There always will be.

“Ultimately, Alex has the responsibility for it,” Cashman said. “He will have to deal with it in many forms throughout his career and even post-career. That’s why yesterday was such an important step for him to acknowledge whatever mistakes have been made in the past.”

Two items that stand out to me here:

Girardi: …I think it’s important that he tries to turn this around…
Cashman: …Ultimately, Alex has the responsibility for it…

So, while we hear the expected offerings of support from the Yankees brass…still…within that, the message is clear: At the end of the day, this is A-Rod’s puppy. And, where it goes from here is on Rodriguez.

Thinking about this now, I wonder, would it make sense for A-Rod, given that he’s blessed with an incredible income, to employ an independent performance-enhancing drug screening agency, and then have himself tested, via blood and urine, on a regular basis with the results being published on his web-site (or somewhere else)? Yes, that’s extremely drastic and über-exposing. But, if Alex is truly concerned with ensuring that the world knows he is not using any PEDs, it would put that issue to bed. Then again, considering where that would place the PED testing bar, I’m sure the MLBPA would flip out on such a move.

Yeah, it’s a crazy idea. But, for sure, it would show that A-Rod is taking responsibility for turning this around.

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